Quality

Scientists in Spain have investigated the total or partial interruptions of ribbons that connect solar cells in modules and have proposed a classification based on their type and location.

A team of researchers in Algeria has designed a new testbed and a novel acceleration law that accounts for both wind speed and sand density. The new methodology was tested on four PV modules and showed lifespans of up to 47 years in terms of sand impact.

A research group in Japan identified a correlation between damp heat test of 1,000 hours to 3–6 years of field exposure in humid areas and changes in acetic acid concentration in photovoltaic modules. Their analysis also showed that an acetic acid concentration over 10,000 μg/g can be critical.

Scientists in Indonesia have investigated early operational defects in a 24.9 MW solar PV system in Sumatra and have identified hotspot formation as the dominant defect. They also detected 282 cases of glass cracking, 350 cases of junction box failures and shading effects linked to module defects.

Scientists have conducted an analysis of 20 years of academic publications about PV-powered electric cooking and have found interest in the field peaked in 2021-2022 in both developing and developed countries. They have also outlined some potential future developments.

UL Solutions says it will expand heat pump testing at its facilities in Texas and Italy to meet rising demand in the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) industry.

Scientists in Iran have designed a CPV system that integrates a paraffin-based nanomaterials cooling system with fin, as well as thermoelectric generators that turns wast heat into electricity. Simulated results demonstrated that, with the cooling system in place, the PV efficiency improves by approximately 16.46% in clean conditions.

The nanocellulose film can be used for light management as its light scattering is adjustable. It also exhibits a transmittance of over 80% at 550 nm.

Researchers have tested eight stand-alone deep learning methods for PV cell fault detection and have found that their accuracy was as high as 73%. All methods were trained and tested on the ELPV benchmark dataset, which includes 2,624 electroluminescence (EL) images of PV cells.

Scientists have quantified the impact of wildfires on the availability of direct normal irradiance and global horizontal irradiance at the state, regional, and national levels in the United States. They have found that direct irradiance is more sensitive to smoke than the PV-relevant global horizontal irradiance.